Google

Google and Apple have upped their game in 2012, and a new crop of smartphones running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Apple's new iOS 6 will offer consumers a tough choice when it comes to choosing a new phone.

Apple isn't expected to launch the next iPhone until the fall. But the company gave a preview of what's to come with the unveiling of iOS 6 mobile software this week at its WWDC conference in San Francisco. From what I can tell, the new iPhone will give the current crop of Android 4.0 devices a run for their money.

Linaro’s efforts have boosted Android’s performance, delivering an improvement of 30 to 100 percent in various benchmarks. They achieved these impressive gains by adapting Android 4 so that it could be built with their improved GCC toolchain.

We first wrote about Linaro in 2010 when the non-profit organization was founded by a consortium of hardware and software companies, including ARM, Samsung, TI, and Canonical. Linaro has worked to improve the quality of Linux on the ARM architecture, focusing largely on hardware-enablement and tooling.

A lot of people who did a Google search for UMass Amherst Wednesday morning found themselves with a bitter pill to swallow -- and it wasn't blue.

For a time, a Google search for the state’s flagship public university returned an offer to sell the blue pill knowns as Viagra, complete with the promise of free shipping. Under that solicitation was the regular description the university wants to use, describing the 1,400-acre campus as offering a rich cultural environment in a rural setting. 

Another malicious Android Trojan has been spotted hiding in a fake Gmail app to spy and steal from those tricked into downloading it.

Discovered by the security firm NQ Mobile, the fake app hides "DDSpy," a piece of malware that, unbeknownst to the phone user, sneaks onto the device and receives commands from a remote server. Those commands, sent via text, include siphoning the victim's call log, text messages and voicemails, data that is sent to the server in an email.

Google began warning users today of its Gmail online email services when it suspects they may be targets of "state-sponsored" attacks.

It was the second time in the last two weeks that Google has deployed security-related alerts to a small fraction of those who use its services.

Thanks to some smart lawyering or perhaps fears CEO Steve Ballmer will show up unannounced, Microsoft has negotiated envious patent fee payments from nearly all major Android licensees. So there's something fitting about the software giant giving a little something back to Android, by way of an exclusive app -- well for now -- on{X}. Or perhaps it's a Trojan Horse to undo Android phones, chopping up performance or draining battery life. Or maybe Microsoft sees Android users as easy beta testers, considering the more rigorous standards for getting into Apple's App Store than Google Play.

A flaw in Google's account-recovery process has resulted in CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince losing control of his Google Apps for Business account, despite it being protected with two-factor authentication.

Go to the Internet Society’s Website, and across the top of one of the pages is a countdown clock, the seconds ticking away as ttime closes in on World IPv6 Day June 6. 

Mobile security researchers say they have identified flaws in Google's system to keep malware off Google Play.

Android modding, hacking and custom ROM development is proliferating at a ridiculous pace, with hundreds of devices hitting the market every year capable of being ‘the next big hackers’ phone.’